Trump: Press 'Dishonest' in Coverage of His Comments on Sterling

The press was "dishonest," Donald Trump said Monday, when they implied he was defending NBA owner Donald Sterling on April 28 in an appearance on "Fox & Friends."

During the original interview, Trump called Sterling's comments "despicable," and predicted the NBA would have to take "strong action" against him for alleged racial slurs. He also said Sterling had a "bad girlfriend" for reportedly taping the NBA owner's comments.

"She was baiting him. And she's a terrible human being. And he gave horrible answers and disgusting answers," Trump said in the April 28 interview.

Trump said he made his original comments about Sterling's girlfriend "in passing" during the interview. He said he "knocked the hell out of Donald Sterling for five minutes" for racist comments that the Los Angeles Clippers owner made.

"The press is very dishonest," Trump told "Fox & Friends" on Monday. Sterling's girlfriend is "bad news. But what I really did was really knock [Sterling] strongly."

Trump said that immediately after the show there were "thousands and thousands of articles all over the place — all over the world, that I was defending him."

In an article on The Huffington Post of the April 28 broadcast, the focus was entirely on Trump's comments about Sterling's girlfriend, and did not mention his condemnation of the racist statements. Other articles on CBSSports.com,USAToday.com, and Politico.com emphasized Trump's comments about Sterling's girlfriend over his condemnation of the Clippers owner.

"Nobody was tougher on Donald Sterling than I was. But what they did is, they used the girlfriend statement like I was defending him by blaming the girlfriend, which was so dishonest," Trump said.

Trump called the Huffington Post "pathetic," and described many in the media as "dishonest people." He said about "20 percent of the press" also called the reporting "dishonest" after looking over the original transcripts.

"Reporters are really dishonest, especially political reporters. I've never seen anything like this," he said.
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